Mark Hudson has been given the green light to add to his coaching staff at Cardiff City. Perhaps the biggest showing yet the Cardiff board are throwing their eggs in his basket.
Dean Whitehead will join the team this week ahead of the Bluebirds' trip up to Sunderland, with the former midfielder visiting one of his old haunts as part of Cardiff's setup. But in what capacity? The interim first-team coach to the interim first-team manager?
It's all a little muddled. Mark Hudson is doubtless trying his utmost to make a fist of the hand he has been dealt and comes across well for the most part. It helps, too, that he has credit in the bank with fans from his time as a player.
But even he can only bat these questions back about a lack of permanency, direction and board communication for so long. It's not really fair on him when he is trying to ready and equip a team to get them further up the table and away from another looming relegation battle.
For what it's worth, Cardiff cannot really be faulted too much for their displays in the six games under Hudson in which they have kept 11 players on the pitch. Those games against QPR and Swansea City aside, the Bluebirds have shown some real glimpses of positivity, with a wrongly disallowed goal against Coventry City costing them a point and a fully-loaded Watford outfit overpowering them on Wednesday night the only real slip-ups.
While Whitehead coming in should be viewed as a positive or a move to a more permanent solution, it does throw up yet more unanswered questions and head scratching.
What started as a brave new era under Steve Morison, with a completely new-look squad and revamped playing style, has become a quagmire of uncertainty. A situation Cardiff have found themselves in all too regularly since their most recent relegation from the Premier League.
Hudson is Cardiff's fifth manager in three years and he is not even permanent yet. It would be surprising if that is not the case after the arrival of Whitehead, but never say never. A year ago to the day Cardiff lost to QPR in Morison's second game as interim boss, a defeat which saw City drop to 22nd in the league. Wednesday night's loss to Watford, Hudson's eighth as interim manager, saw Cardiff slide back to 18th, two points off 22nd-placed Wigan Athletic.
The falling attendance figures at Cardiff City Stadium have been noted, with that number only just staying above 17,000 for Wednesday night's defeat by Watford. The same was the case on Saturday for the win over Rotherham United. That should be alarming to the Bluebirds' top brass, who have a potentially huge, largely untapped, fan base on their doorstep, with football currently at the forefront of everyone's minds in this country ahead of watching Wales at their first World Cup in 64 years.
That attendance figure is no slight on Hudson nor the players, at least that is what can be gleaned from fans. The supporters simply feel they are being left in the lurch, disillusioned with the 'project' and are feeling a disconnect owing to a lack of communication from above.
Whenever Hudson is asked about it, all he can say is that he hopes more clarity is provided in the coming days or weeks. It's not a new issue. The same shroud of doubt surrounded the permanent appointment of Morison, who was considered too much of a risk at one point, with Cardiff staring at the face of relegation following the doomed end of Mick McCarthy's reign.
But many have noted the disconnect is similar to what it was like pre-Neil Warnock, the man who single-handedly proved a uniting force at Cardiff City Stadium. Now, of course, managers like Warnock don't exactly grow on trees, he is one of a kind, and white knights are not so readily available to rescue such situations.
It takes more than one larger-than-life manager to make a club whole again and times like these - fraught with uncertainty and trepidation - highlight that.
It would be remiss not to mention the struggles currently facing the club. Lawsuits, losing, and then appealing again, the Emiliano Sala Court of Arbitration for Sport decision, Vincent Tan massively reducing his spending and slashing the wage bill. More than one report of Tan wanting to sell the club has surfaced this year, too. It is not an easy climate and the club are fighting battles on many fronts and that must be understood.
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But it must also be recognised that the supporters are the most important people associated with the club. They deserve clarity on issues big and small and that is not the case at the minute. Cardiff appear to be asleep at the wheel while the radio silence from above continues. Supporters are getting restless and want to know what happens next. What's the plan a year from now? Three years from now? Five years from now? It's not that simple, of course, in such an ever-changing environment, but some sort of vision would be gratefully received by supporters.
Uncertainty is not conducive to a successful environment. More than one person has said that over the last month. It doesn't help the supporters, the manager - or interim manager as it were - or the players. Perry Ng tried his best to say the lack of permanency didn't have an effect, but if you read between the lines during his press conference this week it is pretty evident that it does impact the playing squad.
"At first it's business at usual, but the longer [not having a permanent manager] goes on, we are all a bit more in the middle ground," Ng said. "But we've just got to take it as it comes."
It wouldn't have been the ideal scenario for the 17 players who were brought in during the summer window, nearly all of whom cited the club's vision and so-called 'project'.
Cardiff fans just want to know now. They are a loyal supporter base and if Hudson is the man to take the reins permanently, they want to be told that so they can throw their backing behind him and the team.
The last we heard from Cardiff's hierarchy was an 82-word statement which signalled the end of Morison's time in charge six weeks ago, which concluded with the sentence: "Mark Hudson will oversee first team affairs at this time, assisted by Tom Ramasut, whilst the club considers options for the position."
Has the club now had enough time to consider? Is anyone else actually on the radar? There has been nothing to suggest yet that other candidates are being sounded out or interviewed. And Hudson continues to say conversations are taking place over his long-term future.
The natural break of the World Cup after next Saturday's game with Sheffield United appears to be being used as some sort of target for Cardiff to get to unscathed before a long-term solution is announced. But by then Hudson will have taken charge of 11 games, a quarter of the season having gone by under this cloud of mystery.
Hudson is doing his best under the circumstances. It will be a big boost for him to have brought in Whitehead, a person he knows well and stamp of approval, of sorts, from the board.
Hudson will hope this signals the beginning of his reign in earnest, in my view it's a pretty odd appointment if that is not the case. And the uncertainty and question marks can then be put to bed. Because Cardiff are treading water at the minute, but I genuinely feel they have a squad more than capable of finishing mid-table come May.
A plan, a more permanent one than constant stop-gaps, must be thrashed out, rubber stamped and communicated in order to stop Cardiff's perennial slide down the Championship table.
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